Maryland Green School

We have published our very first Green School Newsletter!

Welcome to Our First Issue! After a full decade of being a certified MD Green School, this is our first Green Newsletter. We decided our first issue would focus on Atholton’s staff, so our reporters took to the classrooms to interview several AES staff members regarding their knowledge and experience when it comes to being green. We hope you enjoy it!

Have You Heard the News?

Atholton came out as the #1 school in HCPSS when it comes to recycling. An audit was just completed, showing that Atholton recycles approximately 50% of its waste, which is quite impressive! Thank you, parents, for sending your children to school with waste-free lunches, and for fostering and reinforcing at home what we encourage here at school - to think before you toss! Each classroom at Atholton has students assigned to take bins to the recycling can each day. We're all in this together, and it's great to hear about the progress we have made over the years as a MD Green School. Congratulations, Atholton!

Pringles for Green Jingles

The AES Green Team is already working on initiatives to maintain and improve our Maryland Green School. This school year, we will continue our Elmer's Glue Crew empty glue stick collection. During the past few school years, we have collected between 1,500 and 2,000 empty glue sticks per year, sending them off for upcycling and keeping them out of our landfills. They are then turned into something else, like a park bench or a school carpet. What's more, our school receives 2 cents for every glue stick we send to Terracycle. (That's where the "jingle" comes in.) This year, we will collect glue sticks in Pringles chip cans. Each classroom will have a can, which will be covered to look like a giant glue stick! We need your help. If you have empty Pringles cans to donate to the school, please send them in with your child to be delivered to Mrs. Young. We would like to begin this year's glue stick collection as soon as possible, so send in your cans as you use them. Thank you so much for your assistance.

Fifth Grade Green Apple Day of Service - 2013

AES fifth graders participated in the Green Apple Day of Service by heading to Patapsco State Park to engage in a stream clean-up. They also went on a nature scavenger hunt and a did a "Creek Scene Investigation," searching for macroinvertebrates. Our fifth graders successfully pulled 467 pounds of trash from the area! Patapsco Heritage Greenway ran the event for Atholton fifth graders. Huge thanks for their volunteer time and efforts. Chesapeake Bay Trust funded this event; thank you, CBT!!! Also, thank you to all of our fifth grade parent chaperones. Congratulations to Mr. Castelbaum's fifth grade class for pulling the greatest amount of trash from the park, 238 pounds! It was a wonderful day of service, having our kids work with volunteers to do something great for the community.